In the Land of Steady Habits, we prefer our revolution with a cup of tea (Earl Grey, please) and a shortbread cookie. Connecticut, rightly or wrongly has a a national personae among the states as being more of the Founding Puritan Fathers (and mothers) than our neighbors to the north in Massachusetts where the actual founding stuff mostly all happened.
After all, we, not they, have the two casinos that rock 24/7 and without whose cut of the slot machine revenues (25% I believe) we would, as a state, be much farther up an infamous creek without a paddle (or vessel, come to think of it) than we currently are. That's always been one of my favorite questions: 'what happened to all the casino money?'. Gee, standing in front of a new school, on a new road, with new sewer and water lines, and highly-trained and well-paid municipal and state employees, I give up. What did we do with the money? KIDDING!
As our incomes increased arithmetically, our appetites grew exponentially. The balanced budgets of 1991 and 1992, when I and my family were arriving here from another country and another mindset, seem quaint in comparison to where us Nutmeggers are right now--and I shudder to think about where we are heading.
Perhaps the most frightening part: Connecticut within the fifty states is regarded as relatively well-off as belts continue to tighten and we all learn recipes for stone soup. For those areas of our country who started off with less than we have, the 'where do we go from here?' question is a luxury they cannot afford.
We have a six step process for every problem around here, and elsewhere that has almost nothing to do with the problems themselves, but keeps us busy which we like to pretend is the same thing as being productive. There's Enthusaism, Panic, Disillusionment, Search for the Guilty, Punishment of the Innocent and Rewards for the non-participants.
In 2006, we in the Second Congressional District 'fired' our (Republican) Congressman, Rob Simmons, and elected Joesph Courtney. In 2008, we re-elected Mr. Courtney as the state went overwhelmingly 'Blue' (for Democrats, I think; I don't get the color-coding either but that's for another time).
Somewhere between the replacement of Simmons and the election of Obama, large sections of almost everything we own or know went South. The multitudes who had turned out to say 'Yes, We Can' are now doubting themselves and selectively re-remembering how they arrived at that chant. We have moved at light speed through Panic and Disillusionment directly to Search for the Guilty. And the easiest targets are those already in elected office, especially if their behavior has become cause for concern.
Our senior Senator, Christopher Dodd, has been a fixture in Washington D.C for many years--his colleague, Joesph Lieberman, didn't endear himself to the party faithful by running as an independent during his last campaign when his own party gave the senatorial nomination to someone else. He then won anyway-and spent most of last fall campaigning for his colleague and friend, the man running against now-President Obama. My somewhat puckish sense of humor finds it amusing that in recent weeks, it is with Senator Dodd that so many of us are angry and we have found our next champion, the man we didn't want representing us in the 2nd District. It seems being a Senator is a much better fit. I'd also point out that we have well over a year and a half before any of this conversation needs to get serious, or even cereal.
In the meantime, I suspect (and expect) we'll read more and more blogs, smogs and cogs involving 'questions for Senator Dodd' that neatly side-step the 'what will you be doing the day after election? question. "The only thing you done was yesterday/And since you're gone you're just another day. Ah, how do you sleep? Ah, how do you sleep at night?" We'll leave for later what is you dream about when you sleep.
-bill kenny
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